chat-e2ee: A JavaScript repository from zygisS22

chat-e2ee

The project is still in development phase.

Working prototype:
https://chat-e2ee.azurewebsites.net https://chat-e2ee.herokuapp.com

This app will allow two mutually agreed users to have a conversation in end-to-end encrypted environment. The app itself doesn't track you or ask any infromation from you. Data is owned by only you and only while chatting. Your private key is generated on your device and never leaves your device. This is not a replacement of your usual chat application.

Contribute:

Contributors ✨

_Mukesh 💻	_{Gagan Aryan} 💻	_{Radha Jayaraman} 💻	_Jessie 💻	_zygisS22 💻	_{lindsayjohnston} 📖	_Julien 📖
_FabiSdr 📖	_AudreyKj 💻	_{Sundeep Babbur} 🚇 💻

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!

Key Features

The end users are not tracable.
Data is not stored on any remote server.
Secure image sharing. Read more
No saved history i.e. once chat is closed the data is not recoverable.
It doesn't ask any information from you -- no login/signup.

How to initiate chat

Generate unique link.
Share the link with the person you want to chat with.
Both users identify themselves.
The messages are end-to-end encrypted hence, no one can decrypt your message other than you.

How the encryption works

Alice and Bob generate a public and private key pair.
Alice and Bob share their public keys with each other.
Alice encrypts her message with her private key and Bob's public key and sends it to Bob.
Bob receives the encrypted message and decrypts it with his private key and Alice's public key.

In this way, no one else can decrypt the message because your private key is never exposed to the internet. More detailed explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSIDS_lvRv4&t=1s

We are using NaCL & TweetNaCL.js library for asymmetric encryption. The NaCL project is being lead by Daniel J.Bernstein, one of the most prominent Computer Scientists of our era.

Proposed flow

For developers

FE: This project includes a light weight frontend UI - bootstrapped with create-react-app. The FE client is located in ./client folder.
BE: The backend runs on express/nodejs. In production mode, express server exposes the API endpoints and serve the static frontend from ./client/build.

Installation

Fork the repo.
Run npm install in root dir.
Run npm run dev to spin up your client/server. This will run your react app in dev mode and server in watch mode by nodemon.

NOTE: by default create-react-app runs webpack-dev-server on port 3000. The server is configured to run on 3001 port. So make sure that these ports are not blocked on your system.

Important: Check .env.sample to configure your .env file.

Folder structure

The FE client is located in ./client which is coupled with the backend
All the backend controllers goes to ./backend folder
Express instance is on ./app.js
Entry point is ./index.js

APIs

url	method	paylod	filename	description
`/api/getLink`	`POST`	`{token}`	`/api/index.js`	to generate unique link to start chat session
`/api/chat/send`	`POST`	`{ channel, sender, message }`	`/api/messaging/index.js`	to send a message to a specific channel
`/api/validateLink/:channel`	`GET`		`/api/index.js`	to check if a channel is valid

Currently it's using pubnub for real time communication. Utils are in /backend/external/pubnub.js.

Messaging flow:

Client encrypts message at client-side and sends via REST call.
Client receives message in realtime via PUBNUB subscription and decrypt locally at client side.
Your messages can not be recovered if you lose encryption keys.

Please follow the convention for commit message.
https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/#what-is-commitlint

Example:
git commit -m"feat: some relevant message"

External:

zygisS22/chat-e2ee